♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦

Topic #226Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?

Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop! The authors included in this ongoing series wish to thank you for your reads. We appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Prepare to become a regular reader.

“One drop in a vast ocean…”

Why not both? Legacies, I’ll call them, are what I tend to write. I had no intention of writing sequels for the historical fiction works I write, but something about OP-DEC compelled me to do more with the characters. I am still contemplating a third and what that might look like in the Cold War era of the 1960s. Would it take place in the United States, or would there be a return to the European stomping grounds? It’s very loose in my head as I think about it.

Blue Honor may never have a sequel. Although, I think of writing more regarding a pair of characters introduced as children during the course of the drama, it is a lift. The tale will take place many years later, and Emily and Joseph take a step back from the spotlight. I envision something a bit more daring, that faces issues still prevalent today. Again, it’s too loose in my head to make up my mind.

My intention was never to write more than the single story with either of these, yet something keeps tapping me on the shoulder to say I am not yet done with the people I created in them. I am sure with time that I will realize what exactly is necessary to write about in their context.

My other books, The Trailokya Trilogy, will be an ongoing series. I hope to keep going in the next series with another Samsaran wilderness, but one that predates the human story of the trilogy by quite sometime. This will be quite an adventure to undertake and the idea is really very exciting to me. I have fleshed-out stories but am uninterested in publishing them as they stand. Yet, with the right tweeks, they will fit this new adventure, thus not wasting them. Sometime in my twenties, I grew tired of writing about elves and dwarves. My preference now is to read them by authors. So much has already been done and done well in that vein. My additions would have been inadequate and redundant.

There are a lot of tidbits to discover along the way (Easter Eggs). More will come in the subsequent writings. The last book of the trilogy also divulges the trajectory I plan to take for the next series of books. There’s a lot to unpack, if a reader will hunt down all the good stuff to be found.

The Trailokya series is an opportunity to create quite a legacy series. I made a point of closing each of the trilogy with an ample ending–open enough to compel readers to seek out the next, but closing enough to allow them to be stand alone stories. This makes them feel more like seasons in a television series. The visual quality of the series enhances that feeling.

You may wonder what I mean by legacy series. It is a series of interconnected books with vast potential for additional stories. Saga, if you will. When I engage with fantasy realms, I want to be able to provide a lot to enjoy, and that is why I take such care world building them. It should feel real and it should be expansive.

In this way, my books may outlive me. Another author may come along and continue with this world I started. Hopefully this author will be respectful of the rules to my realm, but it will little matter to me either way as I will be gone by that time. There is so much to do with fantasy, whereas historical fiction is far more rigid. Maybe that is why it has come to be less about writing sequels in historical fiction and more about writing them as separate pieces. To me, historical fiction is a means to escape into history to hear stories about unknown heroes and events, as if you’re uncovering a bit of lost history. I’m more comfortable with them as polished little nuggets than sweeping sagas. That’s just my style.

See the links below? Those are other authors who have answered this same question. Click their links to find out those answers and you might find new book to read while you’re there!

Welcome to the new Trailokya Fridays, which includes entries from the Wattpad Exclusive Companion. Trailokya Fridays will not continue forever, so make sure that you subscribe now to not miss a single one. It’s so easy. Just drop your email in the box on the right.

Let’s get started!

The Trailokya Trilogy Companion is a continuing online manuscript that illustrates and explains some of the details of the story, helping readers to keep things straight while they travel through the series. Readers can view this live companion book on Wattpad (either using the website or an app for their phone) absolutely free.

The companion is organized in alphabetical sections for convenience. In each section, the entries are organized like a dictionary along with original artwork and excerpts from the Trailokya Friday blog posts. In the coming weeks and months the blog will feature specific entries, to give you a taste of what is available in the companion.

Beyond the White Gate one will encounter a hall reminiscent of the splendid interiors of gothic cathedrals. Here, the snowy marble has turned alabaster. The ribbing above is fixed with crystal glass, allowing the viewer to peer up at the clear sky and the tip of Mount Zion, perpetual light streaming down. The length of the hall is marked by a luxurious garnet rug. The floor is of golden marble. A single lectern rests near the red gate.

At the far end rests a red door, and beyond that are the blue passages. This is the point where only virtues and dominions exist, but for the travelers they keep. The red gate is the last checkpoint before entering Otzar. It is guarded by a single Dominion. But anyone attempting to travel beyond the gate without that guardian’s permission would find a swift end to their trip. Though this guard is alone, his strength is formidable. There are only three races of duta stronger: seraphim, thrones, and cherubim. Even they would struggle to succeed in battle against the red door guardian. Dominions are specially trained for the task of protecting Otzar. The elite among them guard the red gate, as well as certain other areas of the passages beyond it.

Dominions are a secretive sect among the duta. Their ways are largely unknown to any others but the virtues, who are equally if not more mysterious. The secrecy around them is maintained to aid in their duties. Not even the generals are privy to everything that goes on within Otzar.

The purpose of the red gate is to bar the path to the perpetual light as well as Otzar to unauthorized personnel and travelers. Assigns are permitted past with their guardians only when entering into an indirect interface with an incarnating bio-vessel. The reaches of Otzar are considered top clearance level.

♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦

Topic #224What are your top five writing mistakes? Either mistakes you make or mistakes that make you cringe when you see them in print?

Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop! The authors included in this ongoing series wish to thank you for your reads. We appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Prepare to become a regular reader.

Mistakes happen. That’s something a writer has got to get comfortable with. Whether it’s a continuity error or grammar issue. This is why we are lucky to have editors and proofreaders. Make ample use of them to make sure your manuscript is as error-free as it can be.

Error-free is subjective. That’s something else a writer needs to get comfortable with. Easier said than done, I know. Rejections often don’t come back with feed back, or the feedback is minimal or unclear. Editors may make notes you’re not understanding. Keep in mind that feedback is there to help you improve. Hopefully your editor, or anyone providing feedback, is knowledgeable about writing. There are the rare occasions when you get feedback that is just wrong. That said, this isn’t an excuse to allow your ego to run roughshod over editing suggestions. You, too, need to know grammar and all that so you know what you’re looking at.

Now that we’ve got those two caveats out of the way. What are my top five writing mistakes?

Not taking clear enough notes on something that requires me to return to it at a later date, and coming back to find I have no idea what I was on about. Boy, this is frustrating–like when you wake up from a great dream that gave you some amazing ideas, and you go to the bathroom before sketching down those ideas. By the time you get to paper, everything is a filmy fog of something you can’t quite put your finger on. The ideas are lost. I really hate this! It’s happened to me enough times that I shouldn’t be victim to it anymore, but I am.

Typos! I cannot get them all, and it’s cringe-worthy seeing them in print. As an indie-author, it’s very difficult to be taken seriously. In some places, we’re still called vanity press–as if any author isn’t vain for submitting their work for publication in the assumption anyone would want to read it. The purpose of writing is to be read. Therefore, I’m unsure of what people who use this title are getting at, other than trying to fling cheap jabs. Is the painter vain for painting? The photographer is vain for photographing? Anyway, typos are mean little gremlins. They crop up even after editing and proofreading. They crop up in mainstream work, indie, and scholarly work. It doesn’t matter. These little blighters are tough to get rid of! Even worse is the sense of embarrassment we feel at the sight of them in our polished products.

Not understanding that marketing is now my job as an author. This is something that has affected me over the past few decades I’ve been writing. I wasn’t aware when I started that I needed to be a marketing guru on top of it all. Maybe I just need that it that attracts everyone to you! Either way, I am wanting in these departments, and trying to educate yourself on marketing or influencing is an uphill battle. This isn’t an indie issue alone. A lot of authors think that if they get the contract from a mainstream publisher that the publisher will do this for them. Wrong. It’s all up to you. Part of your pitch is the following you’ve already built and your plan on expanding that to sell their book you wrote them. (Because now your book is pure product, and you need to sell if you want another contract for more products. Numbers will matter a great deal.) I’m at a loss because my growth has been organic, and when attempting to improve those numbers the methods tried-and-true failed. Not everyone will be successful in the execution. The ability to analyze everything is part of the package. Is the cover attracting attention? Is the blurb catching their interest. Are the first few pages maintaining the mystique and building on it? Are your reader numbers enough that their excitement for your work will compound (create more readers)? What’s your angle? What do you have that other authors do not? I could go on all day about how The Trailokya Trilogy is unlike any other series, but what makes it different? The short answer is: nothing like it has been done, and the execution–the places I take the reader and the story I tell them during that journey–is both frightening and inspirational. Do you want to hear more, like what’s in it for you?

Thinking that you can’t do this. So many people want to write books who think they have all the ability and talent in the world, and not a thing stops them. The product they create is mediocre. What matters is they did it. They accomplished their goals. I have to wonder, how many amazing authors would there be if those with humility and self-defeating reservations made the attempt? So many capable human beings sell themselves short, make excuses, and put it off for another day. Their voices are silenced by their doubt. Even those among us who do publish and still think they have no business doing this, that doubt in your ability is maddening and defeating. I fall prey to this every time I have a new release. What am I even doing, I ask myself. It’s worse when you struggle to be read. It’s worse when you have anxiety. It’s worse with depression. It’s worse with a lack of support. It’s worse because your humility holds you down. I agree that humility is a necessary thing, but it shouldn’t be as overwhelming as others’ egos! Please write your book. You can do this!

Not knowing who your audience is. When I write, I don’t have a specific audience in mind. Some genres/subgenres are easy enough to figure out. Let’s go back to my series, Trailokya, to see how that’s not always the case. Where would you list a book that deals with Angels and demons as ultraterrestrials (interdimensional aliens), aliens from our universe, domestic violence, possession, murder, rape, decadence, military, government, family, history, and romance? Stumped? So am I. If it were a movie, it would likely be cross-listed between horror and action. So, examining that and the types of books those people read, I’d probably be better off with a graphic novel. Unfortunately, short of a film, video-game, or graphic artist, this series is a novel. It crosses a lot of genres: horror, paranormal, dark fantasy, science fiction, action, women’s issues, romance, religious/spiritual fiction, historical fiction, and so on… I settled on the first three in the list. But from there, I start to loose focus on who those people are. Are they male or female? Do they fall in the teen, young adult, or adult categories (this text is pretty hyper violent, and parents of teenagers may not want their children reading it)? What does my typical reader look like and how will they feel about me as a female author (unfortunately, yes we still have to be concerned about these things)? Is this a geek culture book? Could it be a fandom? If you know who this group is, leave me a comment, because I am not at all certain.

I hope this list is of use to you, or gives you some insight into the writer life. Although these are writing problems I deal with in my day-to-day, they may not be the same as the other authors in the hop. Be sure to check out their answers, because you mind find some familiar problems and creative ways to deal with them, too.

Welcome to the new Trailokya Fridays, which includes entries from the Wattpad Exclusive Companion. Trailokya Fridays will not continue forever, so make sure that you subscribe now to not miss a single one. It’s so easy. Just drop your email in the box on the right.

Let’s get started!

The Trailokya Trilogy Companion is a continuing online manuscript that illustrates and explains some of the details of the story, helping readers to keep things straight while they travel through the series. Readers can view this live companion book on Wattpad (either using the website or an app for their phone) absolutely free.

The companion is organized in alphabetical sections for convenience. In each section, the entries are organized like a dictionary along with original artwork and excerpts from the Trailokya Friday blog posts. In the coming weeks and months the blog will feature specific entries, to give you a taste of what is available in the companion.

Barachiel, General. (n.) A svargaduta field commander of the Order of Illuminati on Earth. Barachiel is an enormous figure, boisterous and warm. He reminds one of the fables of ale and battle-loving warriors. His appearance is earthy, forest dwelling type.

In the Cairngorms National Park, unseen by any human outside of the upper realms, rests Magnus Castle, the Illuminati stronghold. Magnus’s leader is a giant of legend: General Barachiel. A veteran of The Conflict, this seraphim was assigned the oversight of Earth. From his perch in Northern Europe, Barachiel is in charge of all satellite bases, strategically placed around the planet. Together, they comprise the UWOS of Earth.

General Barachiel is a savvy leader with a rich history of personal experiences that he draws on to make wise decisions. His beginnings are ancient, and thus shrouded by time. Since graduating from the Ordo Priori, he has served the Order of Terra with distinction. At the time of the conflict, he was its praefect. Loyalty won him his rising, and he was soon presented with his Earthly command.

Barachiel is a giant, even among Duta. His wide-figure is bulky with strong muscle, which he wraps in fine leathers and skins. His hair is thick and long, coarse waves. A full beard adorns his round face. The appearance he cuts is that of a wild-man.

Many underestimate the general due to a homely appearance, but those individuals miss that the mind does not require a fancy vessel to be a prized jewel. He has unknown powers, likely grown in strength with the years of his service. This fact is quite intimidating. Yet, Barachiel is a gentle seraphim. Warrior though he is, he prefers to nurture those in his care, as a warm hearted father would.

Thus, Barachiel is the perfect leader to oversee a vexatious human population. Their violence and pentiant for evil would test any duta, and have made their species less desirable for rising among the Aldars. In Barachiel’s eyes, he sees a species beset by the influence of Danava, targeted for Burning Down by these shades. His sense of what is happening among the human population is whip smart. The king is grateful for his insights and it has stayed his hand on many an occasion, when his council suggested heavy responses to draw humanity back into line.

Barachiel is adept with technology, as well as more physical resources. He believes in the necessity of both and trains his recruits accordingly. Thus, he may seem a hard taskmaster from the outside. In the end, his troops are survivors, with the best record across Samsara for remaining in secret and remaining in service.

♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦

Topic #220Talk about the setting of your book. Is it entirely imaginary or is it based on a real-life place?

Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop! The authors included in this ongoing series wish to thank you for your reads. We appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Prepare to become a regular reader.

The settings of my first two books are real places, even if places lost to time. The Vermont countryside north of Montpelier is a short car ride from where I live. Just so, one may visit the sites of World War II, including Boston or New York. So when it came time to write The Trailokya Trilogy, all of that mostly became history too. If you refer to a post written at this blog’s inception, you’ll start to notice something quite different from my historical fiction roots.

The divergence was actually a return to the unknown roots in my pre-published history, when I was trying to figure out what kind of writer I would become. Back then, I wrote very long winded high-fantasies. The practice was a lot of fun. The historical and the fantasy were always intertwined for me. That is something true from my childhood reading to today’s writing.

What I really loved about settings in The Trailokya Trilogy was that I could do both. This privilege has allowed me to create some really stunning artwork to go along with my writing. You’ll find characters as well as landscapes, and those can be viewed here.

The first book begins in the alternate reality of Zion, which is known as the homeworld of our true selves. It’s a rich world, forever stretching onward to accommodate the myriad souls and duta living there. To build is to use one’s mind, so the creation of things come from one’s ability to be creative and focused, a land of mental projection. Of course, to accomplish this, there is consensus among the inhabitants about the appearance of common grounds, such as the White City. Those with the strongest mental abilities, those who are older–it is their city as they saw it created. The inhabitants since, create within and extend it if they are strong enough to do so. One may think that this a formula for chaos, but when beings are in harmony, there is a gentle give and take of respect. And only those in harmony can exist within Zion.

There are 7 landscapes, so to speak, included within the book: Nirvana, Zion, Avernus, Astral, Samsara, Jahannam, and Oblivion. Nirvana is the creation point, and no one in the books knows it except the King of Zion. Avernus is a gate plane. It exists to protect the other planes from one another. It is the space in between, where nothing and everything exists. Avernus is not the opposite of Oblivion, as Nirvana is. Instead, the realm is what I term a chaos realm, where things are broken into basic parts, striped away, mixed, and jumbled. Nothing, however, is destroyed. Matter and energy are simply in utter chaos. Thus, when a gate opens onthat realm, it will overtake everything and scatter it. This prevents the danava and marditavya of Jahannam from attacking Zion directly. They simply cannot reach it, and that is likely because the greatest amount of order is nearest to Zion, so the chaos is stronger at that border, whereas it is much weaker at the fringe of Samsara and Jahannam. The gate is still strong, however. Danava expend a great deal of energy an ingenuity to break through to the lower realms and have so far reached as far as Astral.

Astral is uniquely positioned in close proximity to the Samsaran plane. Its landscape is also one of mental acuity, but it is so tightly wrapped with Avernus that the chaos seeps through, and without that sharpness, one could be lost forever wandering the interminable breadth of that world. It is what you dream it to be. Astral can also be manipulated into telling historical details, or opening gates into other realms below it. It is also very easily accessible from Zion.

Samsara is the universe of which we are familiar. This is where Earth rotates about its sun and humans live out their lives. It is the home of the history and reality we know. However, this land is locked into strict parameters woven into its creation. Although strange things can occur in Samsara, they are aberrations of otherworldly influence. In the series, you will find real places–you could visit any one of the places Dominic travels to in The Shadow Soul, within reason (because specific homes and shops don’t actually exist nor do they belong to the individuals occupying them). There are Ferries across the Channel, trains, France, German, Hungary, Budapest, and Esztergom. Ah, Esztergom. That’s a real Basilica! You could go there, and used to be able to go up on the roof where Maiel has her battle against Morgentus. You could look down and see gate of Jahannam opening below you as the skys stormily open to Zion and the second Conflict threatens to destroy everything.

The places you cannot visit in Samsara, however, are the worlds beyond Earth. There are many races out there, so distant. They inspired myths and legends on Earth, as their inhabitants are remembered, despite the masking, by some souls who wrote down fantastic tales. Alien worlds are yet beyond our reach and are of course written in fiction. That said, some of these other worlds reflect things we know or used to believe at one time about non-human intelligent life.

The next setting is the hellscape of Jahannam. Well, it is hell, but in this series it goes by its Islamic name. This is a dark, sunless world, barren but not lifeless. It is a prison, caked with the dust of the burning. When the conflict failed to gain certain factions the power they sought, they were cast out of Zion and denied the perpetual light that sustains all. A very faint glimmer, something on the level of moonlight is all that is spared them from a crack in the rock firmament. In this darkness, the danava partitioned their lands into provinces over which the leaders of the insurrection named themselves princes and bicker among each other, still attempting to fight the war they lost so long ago. They are are culture of utter darkness and evil. Psychopathy is their normal, and thus the terrain and the dwellings all reflect this. Those dwellings being the remnants of their Zionic creations, cast out with them upon sentencing.

Beyond Jahannam is the plane called Oblivion. It is as unknown as Nirvana, if not moreso. Nothing is believed to ever return from Oblivion. It is the undoing realm. This is the place atman (beings) fall to when there is no other recourse as to protecting all other beings from them. When a being is this terrible, and keep in mind that Lucifer is merely encased in an ice prison in the depths of Jahannam with the worst of his legions, it makes a great deal of sense. That particular attman cannot be healed, cannot be turned back to the light, cannot be staved off from wreaking havoc. It is what they are. Thus, they are cast into Oblivion to be unmade.

There is nothing in the realm of Oblivion. It is nothingness itself. Though this may seem quite similar to Avernus, one must keep in mind that in Avernus things are just in chaos but they can be brought back to their whole state prior to entering into the plane. There is no gate into Oblivion, either. It is only accessible by the jñanasattva (those like the king of Zion, who came there from Nirvana).

If you want to learn more about these worlds and what real places and fantastical places there are inside them, you will have to check out the series. This tiny blog post can hardly do it justice. There is a richness of detail that only story can impart.

Be sure to check out the places and worlds the other authors have written about for their part of the hop. Click on their links below…